This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 11-274706, filed Sep. 28, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a method of acquiring environment consideration condition information used for a green procurement system or the like which is an information survey/processing system associated with material procurement with consideration given to environmental problems.
The disposal and incineration of toxic substances have seriously affected the terrestrial environment. In order to reduce environmental pollution, attempts have been made to avoid the use of materials, for industry products, which contain toxic substances or discharge toxic substances depending on the manner in which they are processed.
As part of such attempts, product makers as buyers that promote environmental management and environmental load reduction activities in conformity with ISO14000 need to order environment-conscious (materials with a low degree of environmental load influence) in material procurement in order to comprehend, maintain/improve, manage the eco-friendliness of products.
A system that can meet such a requirement is disclosed in, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-312417. In this system, material item data that can be ordered are formed and stored in units of material classes on the material procurement side, whereas the environment consideration degrees of the respective material items are evaluated and the resultant environment consideration degree evaluation data are stored on the design side. In ordering materials, material items that can be ordered are selected on the basis of requested material data from the production side, and material order data is output, with environment consideration degree evaluation data being added thereto.
In order to construct and operate an information processing system that effectively uses such environment consideration conditions of procurement materials (materials to be procured) as data, data about the environment consideration conditions of the procurement materials must be prepared. To obtain such data about the environment consideration conditions of procurement materials, a survey must be conducted in cooperation with material sellers.
Such a survey is executed by a plurality of buyers. Conventionally, however, in conducting a survey, a survey table written or printed on a paper sheet is handed to a material seller, and answers are acquired in the form of an answer table written or printed on a paper sheet.
For this reason, similar contents about similar procurement materials must be written repeatedly over lines, resulting a heavy load on a person who writes answers.
In order to check consistency in the answer contents, and process and reuse the data, the operator must electronically input the answers written on the paper sheet, imposing a heavy load on the operator. In addition, errors may be caused in this step.
Under the circumstances, a system for ordering materials with consideration given to the environment (materials with low degrees of environmental load influence) has been proposed. In this system, material item data that can be ordered are created for each material class and stored in advance on the material procurement side. On the design side, the environment consideration degrees of the respective material items are evaluated, and the resultant environment consideration degree evaluation data are stored. In ordering materials, material items that can be ordered are selected on the basis of requested material data from the production side, and material order data is output after the environment consideration degree evaluation data is added thereto.
In order to construct an information processing system that fully uses such environment consideration conditions of procurement materials as data, the data of the environment consideration condition of the procurement materials must be prepared. In addition, sellers for parts and raw materials (sellers of parts and raw materials) must cooperate to acquire data about the environment consideration conditions of procurement materials.
In conducting such a survey, a survey table on a paper sheet is handed to a material seller (sellers of parts and raw materials), and answers are obtained by asking the material seller to write the answers on an answer table on a paper sheet.
For this reason, similar contents about similar procurement materials need to be repeatedly written over lines, resulting in a heavy load on a person who writes the answers.
In addition, to check consistency in answer contents, and process and reuse data, the answers written on a paper sheet must be electronically input. This operation also imposes a heavy load on the operator, and may cause errors.
With the widespread use of general-purpose personal computers, it is natural that acquired data are used through general-purpose personal computers. In addition, general-purpose personal computers are popularized and can be used by many people. Under such present conditions, it is preferable that a survey based on material item data and acquisition of survey results be performed on a computer network, or such data be exchanged through electronic storage media.
More specifically, electronic survey document data having survey items written in a tabular form with blank answer columns is prepared. For example, this data is stored in a portable storage medium such as a flexible disk, MO (magneto-optical disk), or memory card, and this medium is handed to a material seller. On the material seller side, an operator is asked to open the electronic survey document data on a computer, e.g., a personal computer, and enter answers to necessary items in survey items in the table. The operator is then asked to store the answer-entered electronic survey document data in a portable storage medium. Thereafter, this medium is collected. The answer contents are loaded in the personal computer and stored. With the use of this method, redundant operations can be omitted, and errors such as transcription errors can be effectively prevented. Alternatively, a buyer may ask a material seller to access the above electronic survey table data prepared on a personal computer on the buyer side by using a personal computer on the material seller side through a computer network to as to enter/answer necessary items in survey items in the table. The operator on the buyer side then loads the answer contents in the personal computer and stores it.
The construction of a mechanism for forming electronic data and exchanging them will reduce time and labor required in half and greatly eliminate trouble in the prior art, preventing input errors. Such a mechanism cannot be simply implemented for the following reasons no matter how it is desired.
First, it is difficult to prepare an environment that allows common use of files as electronic data. Basically, electronic data is generated by a buyer that is to use the data, and the buyer asks a material seller to provide information for such data. However, such data need not essentially be prepared or used on the material seller. On the buyer side, in order to manage and use many procurement parts data, a large-scale processing system is constructed and used. On the material seller side, however, data are processed within the range of materials that are handled by the material seller. That is, the scale of data processing in a material seller greatly differs from that in a buyer. With regard to applications, an application aiming at large-scale data processing tends to be unsuited to small-scale data processing, whereas an application aiming at small-scale data processing is unsuited to large-scale data processing. For this reason, it is difficult to implement a processing system that can serve as both a simple electronic data processing system that allows even a small-scale material seller to input data and a large-scale information processing system capable of managing/using many procurement data in a buyer.
Second, in using electronic survey table data in a form designed to describe survey items in a tabular form and enter answers in answer columns prepared as blank columns, a problem is posed in the format of the table. For example, to allow even a small-scale material seller to easily input data, a window arrangement and input/output specifications similar to those of general-purpose information processing software are preferably used. In general, a landscape sheet is generally used for spreadsheet software, whereas a sheet similar to a Web page in the Internet that has rapidly become widespread is a portrait sheet. In the former case, the longitudinal direction coincides with the horizontal direction of a sheet. In the latter case, the longitudinal direction coincides with the vertical direction of a sheet. Owing to this difference, it is impossible to satisfy the requirements for the two formats at once.
Third, a problem is likely to arise in terms consistency in data. Part of electronic data can be easily deleted. For this reason, a material seller may answer only some of procurement parts to be surveyed, and the corresponding blank columns remain blank, posing a problem in terms of consistency in data.
Fourth, a heavy load is imposed on an operator who inputs data. When importance is attached to precision, a variety of information needs to be acquired. In expressing diverse survey items in a tabular form, the resultant table becomes large in size. Since the table is too large to be displayed on a display having a limited display area, only part of the table can be displayed on the screen. To fill item contents, the operator must scroll the table on the screen. In this case, the operator cannot quickly display a portion in which he/she wants to enter data, and must search for a target column and fill a necessary item by scrolling. This imposes a heavy load on the operator who inputs data.
Fifth, it is difficult to distinguish between an item with great importance and an item with little importance. Among diverse survey items, some item has great importance and some item has little importance. If, however, survey items are expressed as electronic data in a tabular form, all the items are expressed uniformly in terms of importance. This makes it difficult to recognize which item has great importance.
Sixth, a problem arises in terms of security. It is easy to falsify part of electronic data. For this reason, when data is simply expressed in a tabular form, anyone can falsify the data. In some case, the range of responsibility of a responsible person who has confirmed that the data had no error becomes uncertain.
As described above, when necessary information is electronically acquired, redundant operations can be avoided, and data can be used without any input errors due to transcription. On the other hand, there are various problems that need to be solved, e.g., problems associated with a heavy load imposed on a person who enters answers, maintenance of consistency in input data, the format of a table, security, and the preparation of an application that can be easily used by both a buyer who manages and uses data and a material seller who is asked to cooperate in acquiring data.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of acquiring environment consideration condition information, which can easily acquire answers to target survey items without redundant operations so as to rationalize data acquisition.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method of acquiring environment consideration condition information, comprising the steps of extracting supplier-specific material item data from data of various material items used for the manufacture of a product, using general-purpose spreadsheet software to create tabular data having a structure that allows various pieces of environment consideration condition information about the extracted data to be input, laying out the tabular data to locate an item whose contents are likely to change at an end of a table so as to minimize a change in data structure in the event of a change in contents of environment consideration condition items, providing the supplier with the tabular data, and acquiring environment consideration condition information about each material item by using the tabular data containing the environment consideration condition information added to the tabular data on the supplier side.
According to the present invention, a survey source extracts seller-specific (supplier-specific or parts/material maker-specific (i.e., survey target)) data of material items from data of various material items used for the manufacture of a product, creates data having a structure that allows environment consideration condition information to be input, and provides the data. This makes it possible to seamlessly implement the application of the present invention between a large-scale information processing system capable of managing/using many procurement data in a buyer and a simple electronic data processing system that allows even a small-scale material seller to easily input data.
Since supplier-specific data of material items are extracted from data of various material items, and tabular data having a structure that allows environment consideration condition information about the extracted data to be input is created by using general-purpose spreadsheet software, in particular, an operator can open the tabular data and input various pieces of environment consideration condition information in the table at any place. For this reason, when data is input in one input step, the data can be reused. This makes it possible to eliminate redundant operations of transcribing data as in the case of a questionnaire and rationalize data acquisition.
The various environment consideration condition items in the table of tabular data are laid out to locate an item whose contents are likely to change at the end of the table so as to minimize a change in data structure in the event of a change in contents of environment consideration condition items. This data is provided to the supplier. The supplier acquires environment consideration condition information about each material item by using the tabular data containing the environment consideration condition information added to the tabular data. Even if, therefore, the contents of an environment consideration condition item change, only the end portion of the table changes in data structure, but other portions are not influenced by the change. This prevents complication in data processing in forming acquired data into a database.
Data having a structure that allows environment consideration condition information to be input has a document format based on general-purpose spreadsheet software.
Since data having a structure that allows environment consideration condition information to be input has a document format based on general-purpose spreadsheet software, even a small-scale material seller can easily input data.
Data having a structure that allows environment consideration condition information to be input has a hypertext document format that allows data to be browsed and input by a Web browser.
Since data having a structure that allows environment consideration condition information to be input has a hypertext document format that allows data to be browsed and input by a Web browser, even a small-scale material seller can easily input data.
In addition, data having a structure that allows environment consideration condition information to be input can selectively have a document format based on general-purpose spreadsheet software and a hypertext document format that allows data to be browsed and input by a Web browser. If the document format based on the general-purpose spreadsheet software is selected, survey items are arranged in a tabular form in landscape orientation. When the hypertext document format that allows data to be browsed and input by a Web browser is selected, survey items are arranged in a tabular form in portrait orientation.
This allows an operator to easily and quickly input environment consideration condition information regardless of diverse survey items.
Electronic mail describing necessary items as information acquisition targets and a return address is transmitted to an individual at an information provider. Upon reception of return mail in which necessary items have been entered from the receiving side by electronic mail returned to the return address, an operator transfers the entered contents and return address information of the return mail to a responsible person at the information provider. When return mail whose contents have been approved is received from the responsible person himself/herself, information from the information provider is accepted.
In this case, the survey source transmits return address information and necessary items as information acquisition targets to an individual at the information provider in the form of electronic mail. Upon reception of return mail whose contents reply this electronic mail at the return address, the survey source transmits the mail to another individual (responsible person) at the information provider to ask him/her to check the contents and return the resultant mail to the designated return address.
According to this scheme, environment consideration condition information is acquired by using electronic mail. The first destination is a supplier-side operator, i.e., an operator in charge at a business contact, and the second destination is a responsible person, e.g., a person superior to the operator at the supplier side.
With electronic mail, data contents to be exchanged can be used upon transcription, and answers can be obtained by sending mail to an individual. By separately sending mail to an answering side and an approving side, the mail contents can be checked. This makes it possible to easily acquire information with high authenticity. Since information that has been checked by return mail obtained through different routes is recorded on a database, the survey source can adopt checked information as the contents of a survey sheet without performing troublesome operation, e.g., transcription.
In addition, an answering side (information provider) is only required to have an electronic mail client. This is a novel method as a simple information acquisition method capable of implementing even a procedure for obtaining approval from a responsible person.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.